Blog

What happened to the Pap Smear?

There’s been a significant change to the way we screen for cervical cancer in Australia. It’s more accurate and we’ll need to do the test less often.

Since December 2017, the Pap Smear has been replaced with the Cervical Screening Test. It is an exciting development for a few reasons and alongside the vaccine for HPV could set us on the path to eliminate cervical cancer in Australia.

Public hospitals should provide women’s health services

Abortion is legal in Tasmania but accessing the service, particularly a surgical abortion, can be a problem.  

Now is not the time to limit people’s access to telehealth services

Recent decisions by the Australian Government have potentially negative consequences for women, particularly during the COVID-19 crisis. 

Here’s how. At the beginning of the pandemic, the Government acted quickly to broaden the Medicare Benefits Schedule around telehealth services, allowing GPs and other health professionals to use Medicare item numbers for new patients.

Health, Poverty and the Corona Supplement

The Federal Government is moving to change the JobSeeker payment from $550 to $250 a fortnight. This supplement should not be cut back.

Before this supplement, the payment for a single, unemployed person with no dependents was $565.70 per fortnight – far below the poverty line.

Telehealth – virtually impossible?

It has long been said that telehealth is a great way of getting our health needs met, especially in rural communities. But let’s face it, our health care professionals didn’t use it and we didn’t like the thought of it. Then COVID happened.